LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Festival Grounds are ready to rock once again as the When We Were Young music festival returns to the valley for the third year.
The lineup includes bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Jimmy Eat World.
You can also catch Silverstein, which is fronted by Las Vegas local Shane Told. He told me the band is in the middle of the "biggest 10 days of our career."
"The fact that I live here in Vegas, I'm expected to pick up packages and throw the parties and do interviews and everything and I'm happy to do it," Told said with a smile on his face.
He remembers the first year of the festival and that many people were in disbelief that it was actually happening.
"We were one of the first bands to be booked on the inaugural year two years ago. I remember, when it got announced, everyone thought it was too good to be true. People thought it was fake," Told said. "If you're familiar with Fyre Fest, a lot of people were talking about it like that. I had to literally do interviews assuring people that it was, in fact, real."
But before the band takes the stage at the When We Were Young festival this weekend, they are putting on a much smaller show with just 300 fans at a local American Legion Post.
"When I first moved to Vegas, I wanted to go to a local hardcore show and stumbled into that place. When I walked in, it felt like I'd walked into 1996 and it was super cool, old school, and felt great," Told explained. "I just had the thought that I would love to play here with Silverstein at some point, just because it feels like something we would have done at the beginning of our career ... a little tiny stage, no barricade, a little tiny vocal PA, sweaty as hell. And then, the next day, back to a huge production, video screens, and all that stuff. It's really fun that we get to do both in a short span of time."
The band was originally formed in 2000 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Told is a big hockey fan and this week, the Vegas Golden Knights gave the band a special opportunity in honor of Emo Knight — cranking the siren.
"That thing is like, you've really got to crank it," Told said. "I never got the chance to do that in my home Toronto Maple Leafs building before. To be welcomed here as a local and be able to do something that special with an amazing hockey team in an amazing building, it was really, really cool and the most fun I've had in a long time."
WATCH: Silverstein gets VGK crowd going by cranking the siren
That's not the only place you could spot Told.
He is one of many musicians who lead guided tours at the Punk Rock Museum.
"Fat Mike of NOFX, a very old friend of mine, came here, moved here, and opened the museum. It's just another thing that's legitimizing everything going on in Las Vegas," Told said. "If you look at their schedule of the people they have coming through, just showing people around, it's like absolute punk rock legends. You're also able to go in, puck up guitars like Joe Strummer's guitar or Tim Armstrong's guitar and play it through their amp. What other museum can you do that at?"
And Told's favorite item in the museum is a unique one that belonged to Strummer, who was a co-founder and lead vocalist of The Clash.
"It's the last bag of weed that Joe Strummer ever had. Somehow it got kept. He was getting on an airplane, couldn't bring it with him, gave it to a friend who didn't partake and it ended up in the museum."
Told said he has settled into Las Vegas nicely with his partner and their lizard and he's happy to finally plant some roots.
"The last two and a half decades, I've lived all over the place. I've lived in different cities. I've lived on the road. I've lived in apartments. I've lived in vans. Now, to finally be able to be in a place that I feel I can call home, it just feels so good to be here in Las Vegas," Told said. "So many of my friends live here now and it's just awesome to see that Las Vegas is getting a little bit more respect for being a real place and not just a place where there's hotels that look like castles and pyramids and it's an adult playland."
WEB EXTRA: Shane Told shares what's on tap for Silverstein in 2025
